Microsoft, crypto hacking and Greenpeace are this week’s major stories

1-From Microsoft to China staff: Stop using Android phones, switch to iPhone

Microsoft said its staff China will only be allowed to use iPhones for work-related activities by September.

I saw this story at ReadWrite and the move comes after Microsoft’s global Secure Future Initiative (SFI) which aims to standardize employee cybersecurity measures across the company’s operations, said the story.

The decision revealed in an internal memo seen by Bloomberg, will affect hundreds of workers across mainland China, added the story and  those employees will be required to use the Microsoft Authenticator password manager and Identity Pass app. Microsoft will give iPhone 15 models to staff currently using Android handsets, including those made by Chinese manufacturers like Huawei and Xiaomi. (I have a s story here that Microsoft faces antitrust probe in EU)

2-Crypto hackers stole $1.4 bln of bitcoin in first half of 2024

Crypto hackers stole more than $1.38 billion worth of crypto currencies by the end June 2024, TRM Labs said in a report. This was $657 million in the same period in 2023, as the report put it.

I read this story at Reuters and among the largest crypto losses so far this year was the roughly $308 million worth of bitcoin stolen from Japanese crypto exchange DMM Bitcoin. “While we have not seen any fundamental changes in the security of the cryptocurrency ecosystem, we have seen a significant increase in the value of various tokens – from bitcoin to ETH (ether) and Solana – compared to the same time last year,” said Ari Redbord, global head of policy at TRM Labs.

This means that cybercriminals are more motivated to attack crypto services, and can steal more when they do, Redbord added.

3-Greenpeace: Lack of direct trains in Europe push people to take flights

My final story is about sustainability and there are six times as many direct flight connections between European cities than direct train connections, a new analysis by Greenpeace revealed.

I saw this at Euronews and Greenpeace analyzed 990 routes between 45 major European cities and found that 114 routes (12%) are served by direct train connections. There are another 305 routes (31%) where a direct connection would be possible using existing tracks, but the route is not currently used. On the other hand, 69 % of the 990 routes are served by direct flights. Greenpeace claims this encourages people to fly rather than take the train, the story said.

Here is the picture: Vienna came out on top as the city with the most direct train connections with 17. Munich was second-best with 15 connections and Berlin, Zurich and Paris rounded off the top five with 13 connections respectively. As a side note, there are six cities that have no direct train connections to any of the other cities as a part of the analysis: Athens, Lisbon, Pristina, Sarajevo, Skopje and Tallinn.